I thought the entire "Beijing Presentation" portion of the Closing Ceremony was absolutely a visual stunner and gave notice that the Chinese are going to put on probably the most memorable Opening Ceremony in Olympic history.

I, too, was impressed by the camel spin of the dancer, as well as his very nice scratch spin! I'm wondering if this might be part of the same Chinese acrobatic troupe that toured the US in the early 70s shortly after Nixon went over there. I was very young at the time, but I still remember seeing them on TV and being absolutely enthralled by what they were able to do. Kudos also to the two who did those incredible "circular somersault" maneuvers at such an incredible rate of speed.

I thought the entire "Beijing Presentation" portion of the Closing Ceremony was absolutely a visual stunner and gave notice that the Chinese are going to put on probably the most memorable Opening Ceremony in Olympic history.

Hey, it just going to show how different perspective could be from different world. I just read from a chinese disscussion board, the 8 min of "Beijing Presentation" was critisized as the 'Cultural Garbedge' and 'Shame', etc.

Yes, the Chinese presentation was amazing! I'm sure the 2008 Olympics are going to be extrodinary... The Chinese culture is one of my fav...costumes, music, landscapes, art, etc... I was afraid for that tiny little girl on the huge red lanter.. I dont think she had anything to hold onto...She was a brave one...Peace..

Yes, they do. And I kind of agree with them. The person direct the show is the one directed several movies had been shown internationally. IMO non of them truly reflected what the really life was back in China. With over 2000 years cultral history, seems this show just chose to show some of the craps. And the little girl sing the Jasmine song looked like being abducted.

Thanks for those comments, MZheng. I had that impression, too. Those leggy showgirls looked more like a 1970s Robert Palmer redux than a tribute to the 3000 years of unique Chinese culture.

Mathman

I hope we get the real thing in 2008. One of my favorite performances of all time was when the Beijing Opera (then called "Peking Opera") performed in Boston in the late 1970's. Even that was watered down for Western audiences, in that there was a higher ratio of dancing to singing, but if you've ever seen From Mao to Mozart or The Turandot Project, the short excerpts in both show how vivid and powerful and telegenic the dancing is.